Publication Date

2024

Description

Most individuals, regardless of formal musical training, have long-term absolute pitch memory (APM) for familiar musica lrecordings, though with varying levels of accuracy. The present study followed up on recent evidence suggesting an association between singing accuracy and APM (Halpern & Pfordresher, 2022, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84(1), 260–269), as well as tonal short-term memory (STM) and APM (Van Hedger et al., 2018, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(4), 879–891). Participants from three research sites (n = 108) completed a battery of tasks including APM,tonal STM, singing accuracy, and self-reported auditory imagery. Both tonal STM and singing accuracy predicted APM,replicating prior results. Tonal STM also predicted singing accuracy, music training, and auditory imagery. Further tests suggested that the association between APM and singing accuracy was fully mediated by tonal STM. This pattern comportswell with models of vocal pitch matching that include STM for pitch as a mechanism for sensorimotor translation.

Journal

Memory & Cognition

Volume

52

Issue

5

First Page

1142

Last Page

1151

Department

Psychology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01530-x

Available for download on Tuesday, March 03, 2026

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